not giving up on your wounded deer!
by: Guest
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Word Count: 915
One evening during the gun season last year, my good friend and neighbour Mark came over while we were tipping a few back, he had shot at a good buck and needed some help looking for the deer, so of course I love a good challenge and never like to see a deer go for coyote bait, so with a few friends and my deer dog "Willy" we went over to see if we could help, we had a hard time finding blood to start the dog on but Jeff who i call the Indian because of his keen eye to find blood managed yet again to find a pin head sized speck of blood not much mind you, but enough to make us want to look harder, something that i have learned over the last few years about my dog is that when tracking he always seems to start tracking on the unwounded deer first and with so many deer in the area that night i new it wouldnt be easy getting him started, I took him to the blood and away he went tracked for a couple hundred yards and didnt find anymore blood so i took him back to the blood, this went on a few times and we were all starting to worry that we wouldnt find this buck, and on the very last ditch effort bam he was on it he took us through the woods about a thousand yards or so the guys behind me with there flashlights finding small traces of blood reasuring me the dog was on the right deer this time, then all of the sudden we heard the deer crash through the woods ahead of us, we had no choice but to abandon the search until morning and try again the deer wasnt dead and we didnt want to chase it out of the country.
The next morning instead of going to our watches we went tracking, we left bright and early and tried to find where we left off, the dog picked up the trail almost immediately and started on the deer again, I thought this would be easy, and had a friend of mine Scott with me to carry a gun just in case, because its too hard having a dog on a leash and trying to carry a weapon we went on and on and on and at this point I was beginning to really worry the deer wasnt wounded enough to retrieve it we had been tracking for over three hours that morning, when the dog finally started getting really excited so I felt we were getting closer to it, and with the help of the radio and a deer gang with a dont give up attitude, it kept me going, the dog was taking me through swamps where i couldnt feel my feet, through thisle bushes slash you name it we went through it, finally i realized it was heading for a lake so I told them to get to that area and try to cut it off, not long after that i heard shot and heard my father get on the radio and said it jumped in the lake they kept a keen eye on where the deer touched land on the other side and of course at this point we were all worried about the outcome of this the deer was now on the other side and who knows where, there was a boat pulled up on shore at a cottage that was there, so my father drove back to my house to get paddles, when he got back I remember Kramer saying Paul you are never going to get that deer so give it up, but something told me to keep going with so much time invested looking for it, I couldnt throw in the towel, I told him its not over till its over...three of us got in the boat and of course "Willy" we paddled to the other side of the lake and right off the bat I radiod over and said we have blood , we tracked for about 5 or 10 min when i heard them radio over to tell us it was at the lake again and that they were getting ready to shoot we were up on a cliff in the woods so we gave them the go ahead, after a few shots later they got on the radio and said they got it! What a feeling of satisfaction came over me, we had been tracking for a total of about 6 1/2 hours but it was all so worth while and the amazing part of the story was my friend Mark who origionally shot it on the Thursday night made the kill shot late Friday morn to end a hunt that i will remember forever, the deer had been shot in the right front leg, amazing how far that deer went, it just shows me even more now to never give up and it was a very nice 10 pointer, but the credit goes to my incredible dog, and our great hunting party, for never giving up.
I hope you all enjoy my story and have learned something from it as i did, the deer we hunt deserve a proper search not just a look in the bushes, sometimes we will fail but not without the satisfaction that we did all we could to retrieve our game...
Paul.
About the Author
My name is Paul iam a 36 year old, I do just about all of the dogging with my beagle "Willy" who is my house pet. but put him in the woods and he has a side to him that iam learning more and more about every year and am always amazed year after year...my email is pcruisor@aol.com
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